The Carlyle Group (CAGP), a Washington D.C. based global private equity investment firm, invested US$20 million in NeWorld Education Group, a private education company headquartered in Shanghai, the two companies announced on September 4.

 

This is the first time for the CAGP to enter into China's education market. According to a citation in the CAGP's official website by Wayne Tsou, the managing director and head of the CAGP Asia Venture Team, the company likes the resilient nature of China's education market, which often grows regardless of economic cycles. Tsou expects a 30-percent annual growth to propel NeWorld's market to hit US$1 billion, according to Oriental Morning Post, but the report failed to give a specific timetable regarding market development.

 

NeWorld Education Group, covering language and job training programs, is going to expand its business to more than 120 schools in 18 to 20 cities in China by 2009. So far, the company has 65 schools in China's 13 cities, including Ningbo, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

 

The CAGP has invested in four Chinese companies in addition to NeWorld Education Group since June of last year, when the equity firm collected US$680 million.

 

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese (

http://www.dfdaily.com/node2/node27/node120/userobject1ai26417.shtml

).

 

(China.org.cn by Wu Jin, September 5, 2007)